Is it a tumbleweed, a piece of fishing line, or a plate of spaghetti? Perseverance, NASA’s robot that explores Mars, discovered an object that has intrigued space observers and has even led some to reflect ironically on the quality of this Italian dish on the red planet.
Beyond these assumptions, the most plausible explanation is that it is the remains of a component used to lower the robotic explorer to the Martian surface in February 2021.
“We have been discussing where it came from, but it is believed to be a piece of cord from the parachute or landing system that lowers the robot to the ground.”said a spokesman for a NASA laboratory. “You have to keep in mind that it’s not confirmed to be one thing or the other,” he added.
The debris was first detected on July 12 through the rover’s left front hazard-avoidance camera. Four days later, when the Perseverance returned to the same place, they were gone.
The object was probably carried by the wind, as was the case with a piece of thermal blanket seen last month, which could have come off the rocket-powered landing system. Perseverance’s accumulation of garbage is seen as a small price to pay for the robot’s scientific goals of searching for biological signs of ancient microbial life forms.
These objects may one day become valuable artifacts for future colonists on Mars. “In a hundred years or so, Martians will be enthusiastically collecting all this material and displaying it in museums or turning it into ‘historical gems,'” tweeted amateur astronomer Stuart Atkinson.
NASA announces its return to the Moon
Artemis 1, the first unmanned mission in the US program to return to the Moon, would take off as soon as August 29, the space agency NASA announced.
The spacecraft will thus make the first in a series of flights with which the United States intends to return to the Moon with a human crew, establish a sustained presence there and use the experiences gained to plan a trip to Mars sometime in the 2030s.
NASA executive Jim Free told reporters that the first window of possible launch dates for the gigantic Space Launch System (SLS) and the docked capsule Orion are August 29, September 2, and September 5.
The latest tests in June reached 90% of the targets and on Wednesday Cliff Lanham, head of the spacecraft division, said engineers had fixed flaws causing hydrogen loss from the launch system.
Artemis 1 will travel around the far side of the Moon on a mission that will last four to six weeks, longer than any manned spacecraft has ever done without docking. Then it will return to Earth faster and hotter than all previous spacecraft.
It will also deploy small satellites called CubeSats, intended to carry out space experiments. “Our first and foremost goal is to expose Orion’s heat shield to lunar recovery conditions,” said Mike Sarafin, mission leader.
Upon its return, the capsule will travel at about 39,400 km/h and will experience temperatures half as hot as those of the Sun. The second objective is to verify the reliability of the flight of the rocket and the capsule during the mission. Finally, NASA will seek to recover Orion after its splashdown and then thoroughly review it.
With information from AFP